Immortality Starts With Generosity

The manor was a large squarish building that opened in the center to a garden and Chen Haoran's personal training field. He couldn’t tell if it was pristine due to the care of the servants or because his predecessor never bothered with it, though from the way Mr. Goatee looked shocked when he asked for a sword he assumed it was the latter.

That would change.

Canyon Carving Sword

He stood in the center of the field shirtless and felt his inner qi flow through newly discovered meridians and reached to… grab it for lack of a better word. The feeling was strange, more like an extra sense than a limb. Something he was aware of if he focused but would otherwise pass unnoticed. With qi in hand, he began to twist and turn it till it formed the pattern he saw in the book. With a yell, he swung his sword down and a blue-white ray of light flashed from the edge and left a furrow in the ground.

He had superpowers. Chen Haoran was giddy as he swung his sword a few more times and tore up the ground. If he was already tearing up earth after just learning he could only imagine, how strong it would be when mastered. His fun didn’t last however as he felt his qi drop and lost his breath. Dropping his sword he quickly sat on the ground and sat cross-legged.

Yellow Dragon River Refinement

Despite being the same rank he'd say that the Yellow River Dragon Refinement was much more mysterious than the Canyon Carving Sword. The latter was cycling qi a certain way to shoot lasers out of your sword, easy enough. This was changing the qi itself. He followed the flow of his qi in a complete natural cycle around his body. He took control of it and did another cycle manually, then another faster, and faster. While the circulation sped up he felt more qi enter his body from the outside and he watched it fall in line with his own. Every cycle washed away whatever differences there were in the wild qi until it became his own and grew his reserves.

Now for the hard part. The cultivation method had its own specific pattern it had to flow in, like the Canyon Carving Sword, but more than that, it required him to recite a sutra along with it. He didn’t know how exactly that helped and the book didn’t see fit to tell him. Chen thanked all the exam cramming he had ever done as he recited the painfully memorized sutra. Something about dragons dancing in the river and floods or something, the language was flowery and full of metaphors he couldn’t understand and he slowly got lost in trying to parse them. His qi was still cycling and Chen Haoran felt some peace for the first time since he found himself in this world. Within his growing qi he could almost see a yellow strand appear, it grew with every passing rotation and he could feel the quality of it was much greater than what he currently had.

Suddenly the yellow qi strand violently accelerated and rapidly absorbed all the qi before it. As it grew he saw that wasn’t a strand at all but a yellow dragon. It danced through his meridians and devoured all the qi before it, constantly growing as it did so. The yellow dragon swallowed his qi in a few cycles this way and was then content to absorb the wild qi drawn to his body. Chen Haoran was entranced and the dragon seemed to notice his gaze as it raced up to his head and roared.

Chen Haoran woke up as his qi flooded out in a yellow wave. The dragon’s roar was ringing in his skull and he roared with it, his qi rising with it before doubling back like a dragon returning to the water and submerging within his body. He was slick with sweat and heaving but…

He felt strong. Invigorated. For the first time since he transmigrated, Chen Haoran felt like he finally owned this body. He looked within and found that his qi had grown smaller and became yellow, the dragon however was gone if it was ever there to begin with. He didn’t know why the dragon appeared whether it was the technique or something he did, he needed to meditate and check again.

“Young Master?”

Chen Haoran was startled out of his introspection and found that it had become darker. How much time had passed? Mr. Goatee and Lan Fen were standing together at the edge of the training field. Mr. Goatee looked about ready to pull his namesake out with how shocked he was while Lan Fen was studying him intently with an eagle-like gaze.

Shit.

“Lan Fen have you come to see me?” Chen Haoran walked over to them as they stood right where he left his stuff. He grabbed a towel and utterly ignored Mr. Goatee as he questioned Lan Fen. Plan: pretend to be the happy husband and ignore what just happened is a go.

Lan Fen narrowed her eyes before relaxing and nodding to Mr. Goatee.

“Manager Lin was kind enough to listen to my request and bring me here.”

So Mr. Goatee is Lin? A manager as well, Chen Haoran knew he was important but it was good to have clarification. Manager Lin had a tight grip on his goatee as he looked bewilderingly between Chen Haoran and Lan Fen.

Right, distract.

Chen Haoran laughed, “Of course, Manager Lin is one of my most capable men and I regard him highly!” Manager Lin’s sheer confusion easily exposed that lie. “Please go see him should you need anything in the future.”

“What?” Manager Lin said.

Chen Haoran looked at him silently

“I mean- yes of course Lady Fen, this servant will endeavor to aid you.” Manager Lin looked as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying and his eyes bugged out, even more, when Chen Haoran threw a gold tael into his hands.

“Young Master- what is this?” Manager Lin said.

“I’ve been pleased with your work recently,” he said. It was true too, without Manager Lin handling all the work he would have been buried in stress. “You may go now.”

“But Young Master!”

Chen Haoran slowly frowned, “Manager Lin.”

Manager Lin struggled for a moment and looked at Lan Fen again. He calmed himself and bowed before turning around and leaving. Chen Haoran tried to check the connection again but it didn’t show up. At least it was obvious now that he could only get rewards from Lan Fen right now. Lan Fen waited until Manager Lin was out of sight before turning on him.

“Are you sure you have no memories?” she said.

“I’m just good at acting like a prick,” he replied. He tossed another gold tael to Lan Fen who easily caught it. “I don’t know the value of those, was it too much to give?”

“A bit expensive but he is your most important servant and has worked with you for a long time so it’s not out of the bounds of noble largesse.”

Lan Fen made to give the tael back but he stopped her, “Keep it I don’t need it.”

She stowed the tael away but the reward he was expecting never came. So no infinite feedback loops using the Gift Powers rewards. A shame but he was beginning to see how he was meant to use it.

"So what do you need?” he said.

“Everything.”